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Woman Suffrage

Uploaded by Gotskillz on Feb 22, 2004

Woman Suffrage

A major political issue in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was the “woman question”. It was directed towards the rights of women, focusing on whether they should be allowed to vote or not. Those in favor of female suffrage wanted to break the chain of male supremacy, so women could advance in society. Those against female suffrage wanted women to keep their judgments within the confines of the home; because if they were given the right to vote, there would be total chaos.

A common ideology amongst the people who supported universal suffrage was the belief that men and women were equal. Julie Dabié, a French political activist, believed that women were “equal to men as French persons,” and “equal before the taxes.” Women’s separation from the polls was a “gratuitous insult for women,” according to Julie Dabié (D.2). Ideologies like the one of Julie Dabié, gave feminists a burning desire to break away from male supremacy within the household and in politics. They believed this could be done through a universal suffrage. According to Arabella Shore, a representative of the London National Society for Women’s Suffrage, women had very few legal rights as a way for men to keep “the supremacy in every sphere to himself” (D.5). Stuart Mill also explained the necessity for equality between both sexes in The Subjection of Women. He states that “the moral regeneration of mankind will only really commence when the family is placed under the rule of equal justice” (D.1). A petition from the peasant women of Nogatikino to their deputy in the Russian Duma wants to end a reign of male dominance. The petition calls for legal rights and better treatment (D.9). Unlike zealous protesters, it was deemed by feminists, that if women were given the right to vote, it would be for the betterment of society, not for its destruction. These advocates thought that by ending complete male authority, women could truly progress in society. An Italian feminist by the name of Anna Mozzoni affirmed the benefits of equality in The Question of the Emancipation of Women in Italy. She stated that the ideals of the woman question “discredits the rule of force,” and “advances women in the economic sphere,” by weakening “the power of traditional prejudices” (D.4). Clara Zetkin, a German socialist leader, asserted the importance of universal suffrage in Women’s Right to Vote. Zetkin stated that “the...